The idea of doing a weekly summary took shape when we discussed the possibility of doing a newsletter. There were obstacles to doing that, some having to do with money and some having to do with our resistance to forcing our members to opt in or out of receiving an emailed newsletter, and other problems that while not insurmountable, just didn’t happen to appeal to us.

What to do? What to do?

What we did want to publish were links of our most recent articles, news of current threads on our forums that we thought might be of interest to our members and maybe the skeptical world at large, skeptic related weekly picks from off our site and a place to actually promote those sites and articles that were of interest to us. You need look no further than this Summary to see how we have broken our issues down. We feature a Book of the week, my Evil Pick, SFN’s most popular pages and articles, and a list of articles, blog entries, science news, podcasts and whatever else that we find of interest to skeptics, from outside of SFN’s pages.

Has our Summary been wildly successful? All in all, I would have to say no. But we persevere. We do have our readers, of course. We know what we are about, and the very fact that we are still very much a member-driven (rather than a star-driven) site, in my opinion, makes us special, as skeptic sites go. Unlike most skeptical organizations, SFN exists entirely online. We are what we have always been. We are an online grassroots skeptic site. And with all of the changes and growth that has happened in our community, especially online, since SFN came into being some fifteen years ago, we are still here. Still doing what we do for the love of doing it. Because dang! There sure as hell isn’t any money in it.

So what am I on about? Why did I make our Summary my pick for this week?

346 recommendations are a lot of picks! And it seems that this week I have contracted the Evil Pick’s version of writer’s block. So rather than look for just any old site to dump here, I decided to do this instead (whatever “this” is), because I really don’t want to promote a site that I couldn’t care less about, just for the sake of filling a space in our Summary. So I’m not going to do it. What I’m going to do instead is to ask my readers to recommend some sites to me. What am I looking for? It could be a great science or skeptical resource, it could be something quirky or geeky or, well, just about anything that you think our readers might enjoy knowing about. Of course, it must be a website.

Other than ours.

I have a site picked out for next week. But still… Any suggestions would be appreciated. You can send your suggestions to me at david_gluck@skepticfriends.org Thanks!

SkeptiQuote:

The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.

— H. L. Mencken

Chat Highlights:

Wednesday: Dr. Mabuse announced that he would be back in chat, and he was… an hour late thanks to the Daylight Savings change and a huge load of work. Once the confusion had settled, we talked about cell phones. The kind that don’t break if you step on them. Or stomp on them. Then strange messages from new car stereos, the latest fashion is a calendar which makes the stereo display holiday and birthday greetings when it powers up. Considerable energy was directed toward the congressional reaffirmation of the motto “In God We Trust” and what to do about the text printed on US currency.

“History is replete with examples of media-created scares and panics. This book presents more than three dozen studies of media scares from the 17th century to the 21st century, including hoaxes perpetrated via newspapers, radio, television and cyberspace. From the 1835 batmen on the Moon hoax to more recent bird flu scares and Hurricane Katrina myths, this book explores hoaxes that highlight the impact of the media on our lives and its tendency to sensationalize. Most of the hoaxes covered occurred in the United States, though incidents from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia are featured as well. Several are global in scope, revealing the power global media wields.”

The mission of the Skeptic Friends Network is to promote skepticism, critical thinking, science and logic as the best methods for evaluating all claims of fact, and we invite active participation by our members to create a skeptical community with a wide variety of viewpoints and expertise.